Zhang Xiaoling meets the media after the game (CHEN RAN)

Zhang Xiaoling of China finished her sixth Paralympic Games by winning a table tennis bronze medal in the women's singles F8 class in Beijing on Thursday.

"I'm satisfied with that [the bronze medal]. I have got the gold medals--in singles and doubles--five times. It's time to let other players win the gold," said Zhang, 51, the oldest athlete in the 332-member Chinese delegation for the 13th Paralympic Games.

Born in 1957 in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Zhang's love for table tennis began when she was in primary school. She kept playing table tennis after her right leg was amputated at the age of 19.

"One day, I learnt about the sport Para table tennis from the newspaper. I was so excited that I couldn't fall asleep for the whole night. The next morning, I wrote a letter to a related department to recommend myself," Zhang recalls.

To reach her goal of winning the gold, Zhang trained hard and changed 13 artificial limbs over the past twenty years.

Her efforts paid off. She has won 10 Paralympic gold medals--five in singles and five in doubles--since 1988, the only one to do so in Paralympic history.

"I knew that she was craving for the victory, which led to an unbalanced psychological condition in yesterday's match; the tactic we planned was not well received," Guo Jingxi, Zhang's coach, told Beijing Review.

"The competition nowadays is fierce, for the levels among athletes in F8 class are almost the same; but the foreign athletes have better physical conditions. They are younger and moving faster than Zhang. I'm satisfied with her bronze medal. It's a happy-ending for her I think."